Giving Compass' Take:

• Author Jonathan Raymond who wrote, Wildflowers: A School Superintendent's Challenge to America, discusses how educators can focus on teaching the whole child within the education system. 

• How can teachers utilize personalized learning strategies to follow Raymond's guide? 

• Read about the three key ways to educate the whole child. 

It’s one of the biggest buzzwords in education today: the whole child. Basically, it’s the idea that educating students is about more than what’s said in class. Factors like nutrition, home life and out-of-school relationships can all play a huge role in how kids learn—and it’s something more schools are starting to pay attention to.

The theory behind whole child is one thing. How it gets put into practice is something else entirely. That’s something Jonathan Raymond had to learn on the job. Raymond is former superintendent of Sacramento City Unified and author of “Wildflowers: A School Superintendent's Challenge to America.”

In his new book, Raymond notes that he walked into his role with a strong vision centered around the whole child, and he wants others to follow his lead to “relinquish dogma and ideology” and focus on putting children first. Yet his arrival in Sacramento coincided with the Great Recession, and six straight years of funding cuts. His ambitious vision began to run up against hard realities.

EdSurge: The Whole child is a huge topic, and it's a big focus of your book Wildflowers. Can you give us the 30-second elevator pitch about what it is and why it's important?

Raymond: When I talk about whole child education, I like to talk about questions. We often start with, “What are the hopes and dreams of your child?” Or, “How can we give your child what he or she most needs?” And simply, “How is your child?”

It starts with a set of questions, but then it really recognizes that our children are full human beings. We need to really think about educating their heads, making sure that they have the knowledge and the skills and the tools to be intellectually curious and inquisitive.

Read the full article about educating the whole child by Stephen Noonoo at EdSurge